Quicker (an Ell Donsaii story)

by Laurence Dahners

  He returned the salute, then turned back to the audience and cameras. I’m sure you are all aware that Ms. Donsaii won four back to back individual gold medals in Gymnastics at the Olympic Games last summer before her participation was interrupted by a terrorist attack.” He paused for thunderous applause to surge up and gradually die down.

  “Unless you were living under a rock, I’m sure you are also aware of the role she played in frustrating the plans of those terrorists. After escaping to warn us, she purposefully allowed herself to be recaptured by the terrorists and then single handedly killed or disabled eight extremists, thus saving the lives of twenty-eight Team USA athletes including one of your fellow cadets and Olympic Silver Medalist, Mr. Phillip Zabrisk.” The President paused again for tumultuous cheering to rise up and then gradually die down.

  “Today I am proud to announce that, in the name of the Congress of the United States, I am awarding Ms. Donsaii the Medal of Honor ‘for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of her life, above and beyond the call of duty, while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States.’” He picked up a case from the podium, opened it and pulled out a ribbon with the medal on it. He held it up to the crowd for a moment, then turned and put it around Ell’s neck. Turning back to the microphone he said. “I believe the tradition is that everyone, regardless of rank or status is encouraged to salute Medal of Honor winners. I wish to be first to do so.” He made a creditable left face and rendered Ell a sharp military salute. Out in the audience Phil elbowed Jason, “Actually, I was the first,” he whispered.

  The President turned back to the microphone, “Company, ten hut!” With a crash the military personnel on the stage and in the audience stood and came to attention. He turned again to Ell and said, “Present arms,” and he, as well as all the military personnel present rendered their sharpest salutes. “At ease, and please be seated.

  “Now I suppose you think that we have rendered Ms. Donsaii sufficient honors for one day. However, there are a few things that you probably aren’t aware of. Ms. Donsaii is not only a physical phenom, able to perform athletically at a level no one had really dreamed possible, but she is undeniably a genius as well. By now many of you are aware that the Academy’s rules were bent to allow her to enter at the unheard of age of fifteen. Some of you may be aware that when she entered, she essentially tested out of the first two years of the academic curriculum here at the Academy. A very few of you are aware, though many of you will be unsurprised to learn, that she has completed the remainder of the academic coursework requirements for graduation in the two years that she has been here. She is still under the age of eighteen! Furthermore, I am able to announce that today the prestigious scientific journal Nature is publishing a paper that she submitted entitled ‘A Possible Mechanism for Quantum Entanglement through an Unperceived Dimension.’ I am assured by those who understand this science that this paper will stir up the world of physics like few papers since the publications of Albert Einstein more than a century ago.”

  The complete stunned silence of the audience was palpable. The President grinned and reached into the podium again. “Thus it is my distinct, if unusual, privilege to award one more graduation diploma today, two years earlier than expected, to Ms. Ell Donsaii. And to inform her that she has offers from MIT, Cal Tech and numerous other schools to enter their graduate programs in physics. I also inform her that her country believes it is in the best interest of these United States that she attend such a graduate school prior to serving her time on active duty.” He turned to Ell and handed her the diploma, then saluted her once again, holding it while she returned the salute. They both held their salutes until he whispered, “I’m holding this salute until you drop yours first.” He winked. She dropped her salute and the stadium erupted.

  The End

  Hope you liked the book!

  If so, please give it a positive review.

  Try the next in the series, “Smarter (an Ell Donsaii Story #2)”

  Author’s Afterword

  This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I have always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically possible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Then you ask, what if something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world? Each of the Ell Donsaii stories asks at least one such question.

  “Quicker” asks, what if an individual had a mutation allowing them to have faster nerve transmission than the rest of us? Our nerves send their messages along axons, which are incredibly long process that stick out of the main body of the nerve cell. Some of these axons are several feet long (from your spinal cord to your toes). Conduction of messages along these axons aren’t very fast unless the axons are coated with myelin, a coating that allows the message to “skip’ from one node to the next on the surface of the axon. An example of the difference in conduction speeds between myelinated and unmyelinated fibers that you might have experienced occurs when you smash a finger. When the hammer first hits the finger you feel the “thump” which is conducted along myelin coated sensory axons. The pain comes a few seconds later when the unmyelinated pain fibers conduct that sensation up to your brain much more slowly. So a mutation that made you faster would need to affect the myelin, rather than the neurons themselves, perhaps by making the nodes that the message jumps along farther apart.

  However, for Ell to be able to move faster than the rest of us she must also have powerful muscles capable of moving her limbs more quickly than our muscles do. It is recognized that we all have both “fast twitch” muscle fibers that move quickly but have little endurance and “slow twitch” muscles that move more slowly and have better endurance. For the purposes of our story Ell inherited a tendency for a much higher proportion of very powerful fast twitch fibers from her athletic parents. My thought is that her father already had a gene variant he passed to her that gave him much stronger and faster fast twitch fibers than the rest of us.

  Thus Ell’s nerves send messages much more quickly to her limbs which can move very quickly because they have a very high proportion of extraordinarily powerful fast twitch fibers. For this capability she has sacrificed endurance because she has a low proportion of slow twitch fibers.

  It has been argued that humans cannot become more intelligent because, if we put more neurons in our skull they will be farther apart therefore slowing down our thought processes because communication among neurons is slow (i.e. giant headed aliens from SF movies might be smart but would think very slowly). But Ell’s new myelin mutation makes the coating on the axons thinner. Therefore, with less myelin in her brain, there is more room in her skull for extra neurons that can be close together. This, in combination with the faster transmission rates provides her with more and faster processing that results in her genius level intelligence.

  So, we have a novel exploring the question, “What if a young woman was extraordinarily quick, well coordinated and intelligent?”

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Gail Gilman, Elene Trull and Nora Dahners, each of whom significantly improved this story.

  Chapter from Smarter (an Ell Donsaii Story #2) - a free teaser

  Ell had mixed feelings as she entered the out-processing office at the Academy. She felt excited to get on with her life, especially with grad school. She hoped to join a good experimental physics team that would provide her with the tools to investigate some of her quantum theories. Yet she felt sad to be leaving behind many friends among her cadet classmates who all had another two years to go.

  Not unexpectedly, when she arrived at the office she found herself assigned to wait. It was frustrating that this couldn’t be handled over the net but in the military, formal events like comings and goings still required signing of actual papers with an obligatory period of “heel cooling.” As sh
e looked around the waiting room she recognized that a number of other 3rd class cadets were also waiting which puzzled her. Then she realized that they were leaving the academy, taking advantage of the opportunity to quit without owing the active duty commitment which accrued as soon as you started your junior year.

  Ell had just begun to wonder how much active duty commitment she would owe when a clerk called her name. When Ell sat down the clerk glanced up at her 3rd class shoulder boards and asked, “You’re seeking early departure?”

  Ell said, “Well kind of. I graduated yesterday.”

  The Airman took another startled look at her shoulder boards. “What? But you’re a 3rd class cadet!”

  “Yes. But I completed the requirements for graduation so they gave me a diploma yesterday at the graduation ceremony.”

  Now the clerk glanced at her nametag, “Oh! You’re Donsaii! I heard about that.” He looked up at her face for the first time, “I’m sorry, I should have recognized you from watching you in the Olympics. The 3rd class uniform threw me off. Let me have my AI pull up your file.” He stared at his monitor for a moment. “Ah, OK. Here, I’m sending it to you. You’re being assigned to detached duty for grad school. In addition to your five year commitment for the Academy you’ll accrue three more years of commitment for each year of grad school. I’m printing out the document for your signature now.”

  Ell sat up straighter and scanned the document on her e-slate. “Don’t waste paper printing that. I won’t sign it. There must be other options?”

  The clerk frowned as he stared at his monitor and mumbled to his AI. “Sorry Ms. Donsaii. This is the only option available in your file.”

  “Well that just doesn’t make sense. In the first place I don’t think I should owe a full five year commitment for two years at the Academy and I’m not certainly not signing up for a three year additional commitment for each year of grad school. If I did four years of grad school I’d owe seventeen years! You were right with the first question you asked me. I’ll just sign up for early departure with no commitment at all!”

  “Oh no. You can’t do that! You’ve graduated. You owe five years for that.”

  “My original enlistment said that I’d only owe a commitment when I began my third year at the Academy. I haven’t begun my third year. The Academy can’t go back on that contract.”

  The clerk’s eyes widened and he pulled up another document, presumably the original enlistment forms. After studying it for a moment he mumbled, “Let me get the Lieutenant.” He got up from his chair and beat a retreat to the back office. After a few moments he reappeared and motioned Ell into a back hallway.

  Ell entered the office and came to attention. The chubby balding lieutenant behind the desk waved to the lone chair and Ell sat down across from him. “The airman says you’re trying to wiggle out of your commitment?”

  Ell sighed internally. She hated confrontations like this and in the past might have just backed down, “No sir. I have two issues. First I don’t think I should owe five years commitment for two years of education here at the Academy and, second, I don’t want to accrue three years commitment for each year of grad school.”

  The lieutenant’s eyebrows rose. “You’ve graduated. How many years commitment do other graduates owe?”

  “They owe five years sir. But they spend four years at the Academy. I do feel it would be reasonable for me to owe a two and a half years active duty commitment.”

  “You’re that special, eh?”

  Ell winced, “No sir. But the Air Force only made half its usual investment in my education, I don’t think it is unreasonable to get only half the active duty commitment in return.”

  “Well I, for one, am tired of you being treated like you’re better than everyone else Donsaii. You’ll owe five years or you aren’t getting that diploma. And if the Air Force is going to pay for your grad school you’ll owe three for one on that.”

  “Begging your pardon sir, but I already have the diploma and I don’t want the Air Force to pay for grad school. You are welcome to simply discharge me per my original enlistment if you like.”

  “Not gonna happen. You aren’t going to get things your way on this one Cadet, so you’d just as well sign on the dotted line.”

  This time Ell sighed audibly, “Sir, do you want me to take this up the chain of command?”

  “Are you threatening me Cadet?”

  “No Sir. Simply exercising my right to take an issue up the chain sir.”

  “You want to talk to Major Linz?!”

  Ell shrugged, “Yes Sir.” The lieutenant got up and stalked out of his office without another word.

  After a few minutes Ell turned back to her slate and began running more correlations between known experimental data and the math she had invented to coordinate her proposed extra dimension and quantum behavior. She was so focused that she was startled when the office door slammed back open and the Lieutenant stalked back in and sat down. “Apparently, Ms. Donsaii, it would be a ‘PR debacle’ if you didn’t get your way.” The lieutenant’s words were clipped but precise. “Would this document meet your satisfaction?”

  A window popped open on Ell’s e-slate, she expanded it and read the document which released her from active duty effectively now, and would have her resume active duty for two and a half years once she left grad school. Essentially it was the same as if she were discharged, but with a commitment to reenlist and, of course she would have reserve status and could be called back up at the Nation’s need. The Air Force would not support her financially during grad school. “She looked up and said, “Yes Sir. This is fine. If you’ll print it, I’ll sign it.”

  Icily the Lieutenant said, “You probably should read the whole thing to be sure I didn’t slip any ‘clauses’ in there that you don’t like.”

  Ell’s clear green eyes met his and, realizing that he didn’t think she’d had time to read it in the past 60 seconds she icily said, “I did read it Sir. There is an inconsequential substitution of the homonyms ‘their’ for ‘there” in the third paragraph but I don’t think it needs to be edited. The meaning is clear as written. Thank you.”

  ***

  Ell sighed as she walked out the concourse at the ILM airport in Wilmington. She’d spent much of the flight home from Colorado fending off the eager attentions of the two men seated next to her on the flight. They hadn’t recognized her as Ell Donsaii, just found her attractive. On one hand it was nice that they thought she was cute, but on the other hand their constant attempts to start conversations kept her from working on her quantum models. And the big one had bad breath. She picked her duffle up off the baggage belt and threw the strap over her shoulder. She turned toward the door but then heard her name, “Ms. Donsaii? Oops, I mean Lieutenant Donsaii?” Ell turned to see a mother with two daughters aged between seven and eleven hurrying toward her. “Please could I get a picture with my daughters?”

  Ell smiled and nodded graciously. It had become irritating because she was recognized and stopped so frequently when she left the Academy grounds, but she always thought of Michael Fentis’ rude refusal to give her an autograph at the Olympics and had resolved to always be polite. Unfortunately, while the one picture was being taken, other people recognized her and they actually formed a line for pictures and autographs. Allan, El’s AI (Artificial Intelligence assistant), whispered through her earpiece, “Your mother is now waiting outside.”

  She turned to the people in the line and said, “My Mom is waiting outside so I can take one more picture with all of you, but then I’ve got to run.” The group accepted the compromise and soon Ell was looking up at her HUD (Heads Up Display) screens that on her AI’s headband as Allan projected an arrow to direct her out to where her Mom Kristen’s old Nissan sat at the curb. She tossed her duffle in the backseat and jumped in. She leaned over to give Kristen a hug as the car pulled itself out into traffic. Kristen instructed the car’s AI to take them home to Morehead City after which they started excited
ly catching up on each other’s lives.

  “…so I owe them two and a half years active duty after I finish grad school.”

  “How are you going to pay for grad school though?”

  “Well I should get a full ride scholarship from most Universities and I’ve actually saved quite a bit of my Cadet salary because pretty much everything was paid for at Academy. You know how I pinch pennies. And grad students usually get a stipend of some sort for doing teaching or research. I can take out loans if I need to. If I just can’t make ends meet, I’ll have to go back on active duty which will bring me a full officer’s salary while I’m in school, but then I’ll owe a bigger military time commitment when I’m done.”

  “I can help a little bit, but you know I don’t have a lot of extra cash or I’d be driving a better car than this.”

  “No problem, Mom.” Ell thought it pretty sad. Kristen’s attorney husband Jake was fairly well off but had insisted on a prenuptial agreement keeping their finances separate and left his wife to get along on her low teacher’s and waitressing salaries. Ell wouldn’t be surprised if he was charging Kristen rent to live in his house that they shared. “Right now I’m more worried about financing some trips to various grad schools for the application process. The places I want to go probably won’t take me without an interview.”

  “Ouch! That could be kind of expensive, maybe I could pay for one of those trips for your birthday?”

  “That’d be nice, thanks!”

  “Hey, do you remember Mr. Mandal, your old guidance counselor?”

  “Sure, he was really helpful when I was trying to figure college out.”

  “Well he’s the principal now and asked me if you’d be willing to give the commencement address for the high school graduation?”